Waste Reduction and Recycling Hotline 2755 27501. What is the Hotline Service for? The Environmental Protection Department has been operating the Waste Reduction and Recycling Hotline since 1991 for providing the public with information and advice on waste reduction and recycling. From 1991 to 2000, the Hotline had served about 13,000 enquirers from the household, commercial and industrial sectors. The majority of calls came from household residents, offices, schools including students. Other enquirers include press, green groups, social service centres, factories, hotels, waste collectors/recyclers, government departments, and overseas officials. 2. The Hotline Serves You It is the Government's policy to encourage waste reduction and recycling activities. The Hotline serves the community by providing information and advice on various initiatives including: technical advice on organising and running voluntary waste reduction and recovery programmes; statistics on waste recycling; and lists of local waste collectors and recyclers/reprocessors. 3. Achievements in 2000 The Hotline Service handled about 2,000 enquiries in 2000. Enquiries on outlets for recyclables and technical information about organising voluntary waste recovery programmes were the major enquiries received. The Hotline has effectively helped the public to channel their recovered wastes to the waste collectors and recyclers. This is particularly evident for waste paper. In 2000 over 650 waste producers and voluntary waste recovery programme organisers in the community enquired about the recovery outlets for their collected paper wastes and related questions. The Hotline plays the important role of a technical adviser to various voluntary waste recovery programmes in the community. The types of advice given include programme planning and management, provision of written guidance materials and other liaison assistance. 4. Increasing Demand of Service As a result of increasing public awareness on waste recovery and recycling, the demand for the Hotline service increased from 1,050 enquiries in 1993 to 1,956 enquiries in 2000. Moreover, the enquiries received in recent years are becoming more diverse. Apart from finding recovery outlets for their reclaimed wastes, the public are also interested to explore ways to make their waste recovery activities more successful. Despite the increased demand for the Service, the Hotline maintained an effective response performance in 2000. All the enquiries were replied within 7 days and over 95% of the reply were made within only 2 days. The response time fully complied with the performance standard pledged by the department. 5. Computerised Data Management To achieve an efficient hotline service, relevant information of the local waste recycling industry has been stored in a computerised database for fast and accurate data retrieval. This information is regularly updated. 6. Information Leaflets and Guidance Materials on Organising Voluntary Waste Recovery Programmes The Environmental Protection Department has also published various information leaflets, guidance materials and videos on different topics in relation to waste reduction, recovery and recycling. These materials are available upon request through the Hotline and are listed as follows:
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